This invention relates to a device for regulating the temperature of a fluid mass which flows through an enclosure. This invention can in particular be used to improved the thermal homogeneity of molten glass before it is fed into machines for forming it into manufactured products such as glass sheets, glass fibers for insulation or for the reinforcement of plastic material, containers such as bottles, pots, flasks etc.
Indeed, it is important that the mass of molten glass has an essentially homogeneous temperature when it reaches the machine which forms it into a manufactured product. But between the oven and said machine, the molten glass must pass through an enclosure which generally is in the shape of a covered tunnel, the walls of which are covered with a refractory material.
Due to thermal exchanges between the molten glass and the refractory material which cover the lateral walls of the enclosure, the banks of the current of molten glass cool down faster than the central path of the current. This effect is reinforced because the flow of molten glass is slowed down along the banks through the friction of the glass on the refractory material of the lateral walls of the enclosure. This leads to noticeable differences of temperature within one and the same transversal cross section of the glass flow. The present invention aims at reducing the thermal fluctuation in a fluid moving mass, and in particular within flow of molten glass which covers an enclosure. In this particular case the shape of the enclosure can vary, depending on the rate of flow of the molten glass, and also on the type of glass shaping machines which are placed downstream of the enclosure.
When manufacturing sheet glass, the enclosure generally has the shape of a covered tunnel which can be 10 meters wide, 20 meters long and 1 meter deep and have daily transfer of several hundred tons of glass.
When manufacturing hollow containers (bottles, flasks, pots, drinking glasses, etc.) and glass fiber, the main channel is generally less than 2 meters wide and flows into secondary channels called feeders, the width of which generally is less than 1.5 meters. These secondary channels feed different glass manufacturing machines. The main channel can in particular have the shape of a semi-cylindrical enclosure which feeds radially arranged secondary channels. In this case the enclosure generally is called the forehearth. In other cases the main channel can also be rectangular.